Bahamas 2022 – At Last

Hurray!! We’re here. The crossing from Lake Worth to Grand Bahamas Island was pretty good but long. We left the Lake Worth anchorage around 7 pm and headed out the inlet near the beginning of the flood tide. We encountered a 1.5kt incoming current which didn’t really impact our exit. The waves were very manageable at the entrance and after a few miles out, they became even more relaxed.

As usual we didn’t see the direction of wind that was predicted – south, south east was predicted and we had more easterly wind. Our travel direction from Lake Worth was south east so we were basically heading into the wind (again!!). We were hoping to get all sails up and have a good sail across but that didn’t quite work out. We did deploy the jib and mizzen and ended up motor sailing on a slightly higher angle (if you looked at our crossing trail, you would have thought we were headed further north!).

It was a great night to cross – warm, clear and the winds were fairly low which made the waves small. Lots of boats were out – some pleasure crafts (like us) heading to the Bahamas and other places, plus lots of working vessels – cruise ships, cargo ships etc. We had a bit of moonlight in the beginning hours so we could see quite well. It’s always interesting to do a night crossing – watching the AIS signals on our plotter and looking for lights in the distance. This crossing was uneventful which is exactly what you want!

We arrived at Port Lucaya, Grand Bahamas Island at 9:30 am. We went straight to the Grand Bahamas Yacht Club to clear in through the customs and immigration office at that location. It was an interesting process this year. In my last post I mentioned the online cruising permit site – click2clear which we filled out ahead of time and the health visa requirement that we also did ahead of time. When we arrived at the dock, we were put into a slip and told that the yacht club would help us print our documents and issue our fishing license but because we weren’t staying at the club, there would be a fee for this service. Okay no worries – whatever it takes to clear in. Clearing in the boat was super easy and fast but it took about 1 hour to go through immigration for us because the immigration officer wasn’t on site. By 11 am, we were on our way to Ocean Reef Yacht Club. Jane had made reservations for us to stay at the club for a few nights.

It’s now Sunday morning (Feb. 6)! We are rested from our sail over and getting ready for the day. We have rented the club’s car for the day so we can go get our 48 hour Covid test and do a little shopping. Right now we are planning to stay here tonight and then head out probably tomorrow (Monday) to go south. Our goal is to get to the Exumas and stay there for the season. It’s so good to be here!!!